dyuen87 wrote:hard to believe that minaya would trade for lo duca wen he could've gotten a much better catcher for less than a million more a year. his trades always surprise me, and not in a good way.

I'm not sure that's true. I think that both Hernandez and Molina had upped the ante to close to $8 million. I think Omar didn't want to get into a bidding war and got tired of them both trying to play everyone against each other.

Mets already put up an offer to both of them, and many teams were unwilling to match it. not willing to wait? it's just a month into the offseason, pretty early. i dont think it was a matter of being "tired."

To my good friends DK and Amazinz and BigHort,,,, you might not want to read the rest of this post

GM Omar Minaya said today that he sees Paul Lo Duca as a No. 2 hitter."He makes contact. We wanted to get more guys to make contract. We struck out too much last year," Minaya said. Willie Randolph makes out the lineups, but judging by how badly things were arranged last season, it may be that he sees Lo Duca the same way. If Lo Duca bats second, the two worst hitters in the Mets' lineup could get the most at-bats

raiders_umpire wrote:To my good friends DK and Amazinz and BigHort,,,, you might not want to read the rest of this post

GM Omar Minaya said today that he sees Paul Lo Duca as a No. 2 hitter."He makes contact. We wanted to get more guys to make contract. We struck out too much last year," Minaya said. Willie Randolph makes out the lineups, but judging by how badly things were arranged last season, it may be that he sees Lo Duca the same way. If Lo Duca bats second, the two worst hitters in the Mets' lineup could get the most at-bats

It's Lo Duca for 2 PTBNL. The Mets are being very mysterious about this trade. Like WTF? It's Lo Duca not Manny. Anyway I've warmed up to the idea of Lo Duca but I will be drinking heavily next season if Willie think Lo Duca is the answer for the #2 spot. Hopefully Minaya had a brain fart when he said that.

Maine has a good swing for a pitcher but on anything that moves, he has no chance. And if it's a fastball, it has to be up in the zone. Basically, the pitcher has to hit his bat. - Mike Pelfrey

dyuen87 wrote:hard to believe that minaya would trade for lo duca wen he could've gotten a much better catcher for less than a million more a year. his trades always surprise me, and not in a good way.

I'm not sure that's true. I think that both Hernandez and Molina had upped the ante to close to $8 million. I think Omar didn't want to get into a bidding war and got tired of them both trying to play everyone against each other.

Mets already put up an offer to both of them, and many teams were unwilling to match it. not willing to wait? it's just a month into the offseason, pretty early. i dont think it was a matter of being "tired."

I may well be reading different things than you are, but both Molina's and Hernandez' agents have stated that there are as many as five teams interested in them. I honestly believe that they were dragging out the process, perhaps for the winter meetings and Omar simply didn't want to dance with them.

The Mets had been wracking up the well dones...then they make a trade for Lo Duca. Even if he didn't want to go back and forth with Molina and Hernandez, why did they get Lo Duca? I just don't understand jumping the gun like this. Is Minaya really that afraid of getting turned down by both of the prized FA catchers?
Maybe he just values the idea of Lo Duca as a clubhouse leader very highly.

Contract. Lo Duca is $13M for 2 years. The 3/$18M offer sents to both Molina and Hernandez were rejected and reportedly both were interested in 4 years and $7-$8M per year. Lo Duca starts to make a lot more sense. Personally, I wanted Hernandez but c'mon he's not Piazza and he never will be. I just think those two are pricing themselves out of the market. You know that when you forced your biggest suitor, the free-spending Mets, to go with plan B that you've dropped the ball.

Maine has a good swing for a pitcher but on anything that moves, he has no chance. And if it's a fastball, it has to be up in the zone. Basically, the pitcher has to hit his bat. - Mike Pelfrey

I think the bigger deal is that LoDuca is only 2 years. The Mets cathing position is hopefully not going to be required to carry the load offensively, so LoDuca offers more flexibility both now and in the future.